ATLANTA — A new Southern Regional Education Board report shows that nearly 1,000 charter schools enrolling nearly 350,000 students operate in 13 of the 16 SREB states, and that states need to ensure charter schools are financially and educationally accountable to the taxpayers and students they serve.
Charter Schools in SREB States: A Call for Accountability examines the growth of charter schools in the SREB region, from Texas to Delaware.
Charter schools are public schools that often are exempt from some laws and regulations that apply to traditional public schools, such as required curricula, maximum class sizes or minimum amounts of instructional time in each academic subject. Most state laws define charter schools as public schools that are designed to stimulate innovation, improve student achievement and fulfill specific needs in states or communities.
Texas had the region’s largest enrollment in charter schools in the 2007-2008 school year — nearly 114,000 students in 258 charter schools on more than 400 campuses (some Texas charters serve several campuses), according to the report. Florida had 358 charter schools enrolling about 104,000 students during the same school year, the report shows.
Other SREB states that had charter schools in 2007-2008 include: North Carolina with 98, Georgia with 66, Louisiana with 51, Maryland with 30, South Carolina with 29, Arkansas with 19, Delaware with 16, Oklahoma with 14, Tennessee with 12, Virginia with three, and Mississippi with one.
Three SREB states — Alabama, Kentucky and West Virginia — do not allow charter schools.
The report addresses several important questions about charter schools in SREB states, including:
How does charter school students’ achievement compare with traditional public school student performance? Research shows mixed results, just as in traditional public schools, according to the report. Students in charter schools that have operated for a number of years tend to fare better academically, and students may initially struggle academically when they enter charter schools. While there is some encouraging evidence of solid charter school performance, much more high-quality research is needed, the report notes.
Do SREB states have the statewide data systems to allow them to assess charter school performance? They do to some extent, but some SREB states need more sophisticated student-data systems to better monitor achievement in charter schools. Policy-makers need critical information about charter schools to inform their policy decisions about charter schools. For instance, states need to know why some charter schools perform better than others, and how well charter school students fare on graduation rates and many other indicators.
Which state policies and practices can help states ensure that charter schools are effective? The SREB report also calls for state leaders and policy-makers to establish charter school authorization practices that create high-quality charter schools and provide effective oversight.
The report also suggests that states set high standards for agencies that authorize charter schools and for local organizations or groups of parents and educators that sponsor charter schools. Charter school agreements should carefully define expectations and provide merit-based criteria for assessing school performance.
For more information on the report or charter schools in your state or across the SREB region, contact SREB Communications.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees. For more information, go to www.sreb.org.
